Avoiding The Chair
by BattyBigSister
Summary: Max's world is wrecked when Logan really does shoot himself in Female Trouble.


_Avoiding The Chair_

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Dark Angel. *Starts to cry*

**Author:** Big Sister

**Rating: **G

**Summary: **Max's world is wrecked when Logan really does shoot himself in Female Trouble 

**Timeline:** Season 1, starts at end of Female Trouble (Surprise, Surprise)

**Couples:** M/L (Equally Surprise, Surprise)

**Author's Note:** I started writing this when I was separated from all my other stories by a power cut, so it's very short and a stand-alone. But I hope you like it anyway. 

Max raced up the stairs her heart pounding in her chest. She could've taken the elevator, but it was faster this way. A gunshot echoed down the hall.

**_"No!" _**a voice cried. Her own? 'It can't be!' she kept thinking, 'It can't be!'

Her feet raced along the corridor of their own volition.**_ "Logan!"_** she screamed, flinging the front door to his apartment open.

**_"Logan!"_** she raced into the computer room … and stopped dead in her tracks.

"No," she whispered, "No. Can't be."

There he was. Logan Cale, limp in his chair. Blood pouring from a gunshot wound to the head. The weapon itself had fallen to the floor.

"Can't be," the frightened girl murmured, "Can't be. Can't be. It's not true. _It's not true._" She flung herself across his body, hugging his still warm form to her, sobbing like a baby.

And that was how Bling found her fifteen minutes later.

Of what happened after that she knew very little. She watched the events like someone in a daze, like a spectator, as if she wasn't really there. She barely heard the bodyguard calling an ambulance or felt him gently pull her away from Logan when they turned up to take him away. She didn't notice much during the journey to the hospital either, when she just sat there watching the still form of the man she had loved. She didn't even see the doctor, who took one look at Logan and shook his head. There was nothing the poor man could do for him; the bullet had done too much damage.

Bling watched her pale limp form, wishing that there was something he could do to help her. She just sat there silently, watching the nurses prepare the lifeless corpse for transport to the morgue, doing nothing, saying nothing. If she would at least cry or shout or scream or something. But there was nothing he could say to her; he was as empty as she was.

Then suddenly the hospital room door opened. A military tac-team appeared. Bling automatically reached for his gun.

"Run! Max, run!" he yelled taking cover behind his friend's body.

She didn't run though. She didn't even move. It was as if she wasn't even aware of the danger she was in – or didn't care.

Bling dashed forward, grabbing her arm, pulling her to her feet. She just collapsed limply onto the floor, not even making the effort to keep herself upright. He knelt down, put his arm around her, pulled her to her feet. A few of the soldiers fired at him, he returned fire, desperately searching for a means of escape. The window.

He yanked it open with one hand, holding the gun, supporting her with the other. He switched the gun back to his other hand, fired a few rounds at the men. Looked out.

Nothing. Not even a ledge they could have climbed onto. His eyes frantically scanned the street. There a dumpster below them. Firing a few more bullets at the men, he climbed onto the ledge, dragging her with him.

A blonde man, Lydecker, shook his head, calling out, "That's crazy! She could make that jump, but for you - it's suicide!"

Bling looked down at the dumpster again. It had just been emptied. _Damn he was right!_

He leapt down from the sill. Thinking quickly, he grabbed Max around her waist and lifted, forcing her upwards to take his place.

"Jump, girl, jump," he cried desperately, but she didn't.

She was too numb to do anything. He shook her slightly. Still nothing.

Bling let her down again. He knew that if he threw her out, she would simply let herself fall to her death. There was nothing he could do for her now.

Silently he let the soldiers take her. Two of them gripped either arm, dragging her across the floor. They paused for a second as they passed Lydecker.

He was about to open his mouth, to give an order, when suddenly she raised her head, looking straight at him.

Two dark brown pools of misery stared up at him. "Logan?" she asked quietly.

Both Bling and Lydecker felt their hearts contract.

"Take her outside. Put her in the van. Prepare for transport back to Manticore." Lydecker muttered more quietly than usual. The soldiers pulled her away.

As he left Lydecker's eyes met those of the now redundant bodyguard and slowly … they nodded at each other. They both knew that Max had gone insane.


End file.
